


Healing

by gaysquared



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: M/M, Mental Health Issues, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, See Notes for Additional Warnings, relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2018-03-25 09:03:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3804634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaysquared/pseuds/gaysquared
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jet and Zuko seem to have a sort of arrangement.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Healing

**Author's Note:**

> Okay  
> There could be considered light body horror. Basically, Zuko gives Jet minor burns, repeatedly, with consent. This could also be interpreted as a twisted way of self harm, so be cautious if that bothers you. 
> 
> Not really sure when or where this is set. Unbeta'd.

It's more than a surprise to Zuko when Jet asks him to do this. It's not like the man has ever really been particularly fond of the part of Zuko that is a fire bender, and Zuko finds it takes him a long time to understand why Jet wants this. He gets it after the first few times he does it, fingers careful, tracing the chaotic path the prince has seen flame take all his life. 

He finds himself understanding as Jet hisses in pain, cursing under his breath. Watching the tanned muscles tense beneath his fingers as if he had never touched the skin before, hadn't felt and explored every inch of that exterior, he finds clarity. There's a freshness to it all that leaves him feeling raw and numb and choking on his feelings all at the same time. Jet never says anything afterwards, just sleeps like the night, like he almost never does. 

After several weeks Zuko sees what he's been creating, realizes where it's been coming from. Still, Jet doesn't ask him to do it every night, only when he needs it, and some weeks this is more often than others. It becomes easy for the prince to see how far to go, how much Jet can take before he breaks, again and again, as if the boy has some obsession with picking up the pieces of his psyche. It's always directly proportional to how much Jet needs that day, and Zuko can see it in his eyes when he walks in the door. 

After three months there is a phoenix spreading itself over Jet's back, scarred and permanently burnt into the flesh. Much of it healed long ago, with the tips of the wings still fresh and painful. When Zuko looks at it he knows he's finished, and he tells Jet, wondering if this really is it. 

"No," Jet says. "It'll never be finished." He turns his head to look at Zuko, who still sits behind him.  
"But this will be good enough."

Jet never asks him after that to do it again, even on his bad days. Zuko has his bad days too, but his are nothing like Jet's. On his bad days, Jet will close his eyes for long enough that the spinning of the world like a top stops so he can escape from his nausea and his headache, staring blankly into the wall as he lays on his side. Zuko will pull Jet into his lap and smooth back his hair out of his eyes, soothing his hands into Jet's sore spots, but telling, always telling Jet what he's going to do before he does it, even if he doesn't get a response. 

On Zuko's bad days, Jet lets him chase him, let's them both dance and fight and pretend that there isn't just too much, too much. And when Zuko needs it Jet will help him and push him where it hurts to keep him breathing. Zuko admits he may never understand what he sometimes needs from Jet, and this is what lets him understand what Jet wants. 

He asks him once, when they're laid up in bed and Zuko's throat is dry and the sweat runs down his neck, legs curling in on Jet's like wires being pulled, what this is. Jet looks at him, almost surprised and says, "This is healing."

Zuko thinks maybe he's right. He always has too much when Jet has too little and he gives, and when it's the opposite Jet does the same. They never seem to be out of sync in this oddly cyclical thing, one always making up for the other. And on the rare occasions they both seem to have just the right amount, Zuko thinks he's remembering to feel love, and yes, it's very much like what he's feeling. But that scares him, and he realizes there's nothing wrong with ignoring it, because they get along just fine anyways. 

And when Jet starts sleeping more, gifted with a diminishing of his nightmares, there are nights when Zuko can't sleep, kept awake by his own thoughts. He gets up, sits awake in the dark, and finds himself wondering which of them is the phoenix, and which of them died in the first place.


End file.
